Desperados Under the Eaves
by Bishie Hunter Neko
Summary: [Song fic] Trying to find peace, Duo wanders aimlessly. When he unexceptedly meets two old friends in a cafe, more than one life is changed. R&R!


_Desperados Under the Eaves  
_

I do not own Gundam Wing, or its characters. I am merely a fangirl, who worships Duo Maxwell. The lyrics to the song Desperados Under the Eaves do not belong to me. They belong to Warren Zevon, who is dying of inoperable lung cancer. ^sigh^ I'm depressed now.   
  
_Italics:_ thinking/flashbacks  
/words/: lyrics  
  


_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~_  
/I was staring in my empty coffee cup  
I was thinking that the gypsy wasn't lyin'/  


  
Duo Maxwell, pilot of the Gundam 02, sat at a table looking out into the street. Of course, Deathscythe was long gone now, like his sense of purpose, but he still called himself that. For some meaning in his meaningless life.  
  
He took a sip of his coffee, and pretended to read the paper, while really, he was analyzing and reanalyzing. A truck rolled by on the road, and Duo felt it though the ground, although the sound was muted by the window.  
  
_I tried to drown my sorrows in a pot of coffee once. _Duo gave a pale imitation of the classic Maxwell smirk._ I think I told everyone I knew. They didn't understand though. They all asked whether it worked, but that wasn't what O wanted. It didn't work, actually. I was just hyper for the next week.  
  
That's beside the point though. Nobody, not even Quatre, asked what was wrong. Maybe they thought I was joking. I wasn't. Oh no, I wasn't._  
  
The waitress reached over his should to refill his coffee cup. Duo smiled absently at her before she returned to the counter.   
  


/Don't you feel like desperados under the eaves  
Heaven help the one who leaves/  
  


Duo twisted the end of his braid around his fingers. _Quatre. _Where was he now? _AC 198. That's when I last saw him. Head of the Winner Corporation, and working nine to five in his office on L-4. I doubt he was truly happy, but God, I felt so worthless. Sure I was free to do whatever the hell I wanted, but still...  
  
It was at the funeral. We were all there; Heero, Duo, Trowa, Quatre, and Wufei. I'm not sure what was worse- the funeral, or Quatre looking so small. Sure, he wasn't tall at the best of times, but he looked so... So beaten, so devastated.  
  
_

/Still waking up in the mornings with shaking hands  
And I'm trying to find a girl who understands me/  
  


Duo tucked a ten dollar bill under his empty cup and exited the small cafe to walk the streets. In the west, huge banks of cloud built up, gray and ominous- promising rain.  
  
_Have you ever done something you've truly regretted? Something you regretted so much, that if you had the chance to live it over again, you'd rather die than do what you did? I have. Tons of times. Maybe everyone has. I dunno.  
  
_Duo wandered, lost in thought, under skies that grew increasingly dark. A sudden gust of wind below clouds over the sun, dimming the light further.  
  
I wonder if it's gonna rain, Duo remarked to no one in particular. He looked heavenward and caught a rain drop in the eye, answering his question. Duo blinked the rain away and quickened his pace.  
  


/Don't the sun look angry through the trees  
Don't the trees look like crucified thieves/  
  


Duo ducked inside a tiny cafe. By then, it was pouring, and he was soaked. The bell above the door jangled noisily, and the only two customers- a petite blue-haired woman and a slight, blonde man -looked up, mildly startled.  
  
Duo quietly ordered a coffee and seated himself at a table tucked away in the corner, but close to an emergency exit. In case someone came after him. Not that they would.  
  
The blonde man left, opening an umbrella as he stepped outside. A woman came from behind the counter, cleared the table and wiped it off. The amount of coffee in Duo's cup slowly decreased and he felt his spirits rise.  
  
_God, if Hilde were here, she'd be killing herself laughing._ Duo smirked, picturing what he must look like.  
  
Water dripping off his braid into a puddle on the floor, he hunched over his coffee cup.' The blue-haired girl scribbled in a battered notebook, smiling every time she glanced casually at Duo.  
  
_I wonder what she's doin' now. _Duo's smirk slowly vanished as his thoughts returned to the funeral. Duo had watched them all from a distance, a shadowy figure at the back.  
  
_Heero had ditched his Perfect Soldier' garb for a suit, which looked less foreign on him than Duo had expected. Trowa, silent and calm, blended into the background. Quatre's dark suit made him look pale and washed out, while Wufei stood out from the rest of the mourners, straight-backed with pride in his traditional white. Relena stood off to the side, an arm around Hilde's shaking shoulders, her own eyes wet with tears.  
  
And then there was him. The God of Death strangely out of place at the funeral._ Duo sighed for what seemed like the millionth time that day.  
  
_He hadn't stayed to watch the coffin get lowered into the ground. It didn't seem right.  
  
_Duo placed another bill under his empty cup and got up to leave. The bells jangled again, and the girl turned to watch him go, as he disappeared into the mist.  
  
Hilde turned to a fresh page in her notebook and started. I saw Duo today, but I don't believe in ghosts...'  
  


~~~  


Quatre walked quickly down the street, while still managing not to step in any puddles. He skillfully held his umbrella to deflect the drizzle away from his suit. Late for a meeting in one of Earth's many banks, again.  
  
He had been so distracted in the years following the funeral. _Duo's funeral. _Even now, it was hard to grasp/ Always late for something, sometimes Quatre wished it could just go away and bother someone else for awhile. Of course, it couldn't.  
  
_Duo was always so full of life, positive and ever excited about something. He was a strange compliment to stoic Heero and quiet Trowa. I don't know, even know, what happened.  
  
_Quatre sighed. _Was, was, was... _It felt so strange to use that word to describe Duo, when, just ten minutes ago, he had seen Duo himself, drinking a cup of coffee. It must have been Duo, since not many guys were strange enough, or as respectful for the dead, or, well, Duo enough to have a braid.  
  
_Just one of many Duo-isms, I suppose.  
  
_

~~~  
  
/But except in dreams you're never really free  
Don't the sun look angry at me/  
  


Duo strolled leisurely down the street, which went on as far as he could see in both directions.  
  
_Quatre and HIlde, both in the same cafe, at the same time. And they didn't even know, either! Eerie coincidence, or conspiracy? Either way, I bet they were both pretty surprised to see me._  
  
The rain gradually stopped and sunlight cut through the clouds, bathing the city in a bright, fresh glow, reflecting off the puddles in the street. Far in the distance, Duo could see Quatre twirling his umbrella like a baton, all thoughts of meetings far from his mind.  
  
_Maybe one day I'll give. Rest in peace, as they say. But for now... My next victim. _ Duo grinned and kept right on going.  
  


_~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
_

Neko's Note: ^listens to Cruel Angel's Thesis^ EEE!!! Anyways, what did you think? My first attempt at a serious Gundam Wing song fic... Duo-isms! ^heh^ Please review!  
  
psycho__neko@hotmail.com


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